SFIA Petitions President Obama to Unblock West Coast Port Congestion

Date: 12/3/14

SILVER SPRING, MD – December 3, 2014 – With the ongoing congestion at West Coast ports inhibiting the schedule of reliability of carriers, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) has signed a petition urging President Obama to unblock the congestion.

“Having these ports operating efficiently is crucial to our members’ businesses,” said Bill Sells, SFIA Vice President – Government & Public Affairs. “We encourage every one of our members and their employees to sign the petition asking the White House to engage in the process by having a federal mediator help negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement between the ILWU and PMA as a way to ease congestion at the ports.”

Terminal operators have not been able to reduce backlogs as slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union continue to plague U.S. West Coast ports. The congestion also had a “severe” impact on schedule reliability in the Oceania-North America trade lane.

In the past three months, reliability declined 26 percentage points in the southbound route to a record low performance of 68 percent in October, while container delivery from July to October decreased 37.5 percentage points to a record low of 50.5 percent according to SeaIntel Maritime Analysis. In the northbound direction, reliability dropped more than 20 percentage points to a record low level of 68.9 percent, while container delivery fell almost 12 percentage points in the past few months.